


Bounce

by madgirl



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-23
Updated: 2013-04-23
Packaged: 2017-12-09 07:32:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/771647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madgirl/pseuds/madgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the short period of time in which Q is human, he meets a little girl who apparently understands a lot more about humanity than he does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bounce

**Author's Note:**

> I submitted this story to the Strange New Worlds contest before it was defunct. Obviously it was not a winner. :) It takes place during the "Deja-Q" episode of season 3.

Kailee sat outside sickbay, bouncing a ball against the opposite wall.  So far, no one had stopped to tell her that this was something she shouldn't be doing.  In fact, no one had stopped at all.  The grown-ups hurrying past all seemed to be too busy to even notice that she was there, let alone that she might be misbehaving.

     She suspected that there was something terribly important going on, because everyone seemed very busy.  From what she had picked up from snatches of conversation, it might have something to do with a moon falling out of the sky.  Or maybe with Mr. Data, who had just been carried into sickbay.  He must have been really broken, because the captain had been in there and everything. 

     Kailee missed the ball the next time it bounced back; it grazed her fingers and then hit the floor, skidding off towards the sickbay doors.  When they opened, a man stepped out and his shoe intercepted the ball's course.  He frowned, then bent down and scooped it up.  He held it between two fingers and brought it up to his eyes, squinting at it as if he were studying an insect.

     "What is this?" he asked, his eyes not leaving the ball. 

     Kailee was surprised that he had even noticed her.  "It's a... ball," she answered slowly, wondering if it were some sort of trick question.  Was he about to scold her for playing outside sickbay?

     "A ball," he repeated, sounding puzzled.  "Well, yes, it is very ball _shaped_ , of course, but what is its _purpose_?"

     Kailee thought that he sounded sort of like Mr. Data, but _he'd_ know what a ball was for, even if he wouldn't understand why playing with one was fun.  She popped to her feet and held out her hand.  He just looked at her for a moment, and then finally dropped the ball into her palm.

     She let it fall to the floor, and when it bounced back up, caught it again.  "There," she said.  "See?  I was just playing.  It's fun."

     The man's nose wrinkled distastefully.  "You _humans_."  He said 'humans' the way Kailee would say 'homework.'  "You have the most primitive ideas about entertainment.  Rerouting the course of a civilization and watching it go to hell?  That's _fun_.  Annoying Worf until that little vein bulges out on his forehead?  That's _fun_.  This?"  He snatched the ball from her and threw it against the wall.  It bounced off and then skidded down the hallway.  "This is not fun!  I'm going to die a slow, painful death of boredom."

     Kailee glared at him.  She'd already lost another ball while playing jacks with a kid from her class yesterday.  She waited for him to apologize, but when he just stood there looking miserable, she finally blurted, "So if you're not human, what are you?"  Her mom had taught her that it was very rude to ask such questions, but she figured that at this point she couldn't be any ruder than him. 

     "I'm human _now_ ," he muttered, his eyes rolling to the ceiling.  "Just like you."  He looked down at her.  "You're rather short, aren't you?"

     "I'm ten!"

     "Oh.  Just a child then, are you?"  He peered at her, cocking his head to the side.  "There really should be some easier way to tell.  Couldn't you be a different color or something?"

     She was starting to wonder if maybe he was crazy.  Maybe that's why he'd been in sickbay.  And what did he mean, he was human _now_?  It wasn't as if you could bounce around from one species to another.

     He was still talking, though it seemed to be more to himself than to Kailee.  "I suppose I'm either billions of years old, or less than a day, depending on how you look at it.  This is a brand new body, after all, you'd think I'd be getting more mileage out of it – do you have back pain yet, little girl?"

     She shook her head wordlessly, and her eyes darted to the door as she plotted her escape route.

     "Well, I do and I don't like it.  Not only am I human, but I've got all of the unpleasantness that goes with it.  Such as mortality.  Did you know you're going to die soon?  It might not seem soon to you, but if you'd lived as long as I have, _this_ pitiful lifespan would seem like a drop in the bucket."

     Kailee wrinkled her nose.  "Who are you anyway?  I don't think I like you."  Her mom was always telling her that she was too blunt, that she should think before she said things because sometimes they sounded rude.  Most people have a filter between their brain and their mouth, her mom said, so that they can swallow the stuff they shouldn't actually say.  Kailee figured there wasn't much use in having a brain if you had to filter it.

     "I am Q," the man said importantly.  He actually seemed to puff out his chest a little.  "I used to be omniscient, you know."

     "I'm a vegetarian," Kailee said.  She wasn't sure what omniscient meant, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with what you eat.  "So why aren't you omni-whatever anymore?"

     Q scowled.  "They kicked me out of the Continuum.  It's basically just a prolonged execution, you know.  Cruel and unusual punishment.  I'm mortal now, and I'm going to die.  I almost _did_ die, in fact.  Just now!"

     "Really?"

     "Really.  If it wasn't for bolt breath's hero complex, I might be winging my way towards oblivion right now." 

     Kailee's eyes widened in surprise and she jerked her thumb towards the sickbay doors.  "Mr. Data?  That's why he's broken?  Because he saved you?"

     Q snorted.  "I know.  Ridiculous, isn't it?  What's that silly story you people tell...  Pinocchio?  No amount of good deeds is going to turn him into a real boy."

     Kailee's lip trembled a little.  Mr. Data was the only grown-up on the ship that didn't treat her like a little kid.  He was going to teach her to play the oboe.  "I wish he hadn't!" she blurted.  "I'd rather you were broken than him!"

     "I'm sure that's a very popular opinion, little girl," Q said sourly, looking down at her.  "But don't get so worked up.  He's going to be fine."  He scowled.  " _He'll_ live forever, I'm sure, whereas I have only a handful of decades left in this pitiful body."

     "I don't know what you were before, but you're not very good at being human," Kailee muttered irritably, though she was relieved at the news that Mr. Data was going to be okay.  "My mom says that there's no use in being afraid all the time, because it won't change anything.  You can't enjoy life if you're worried about death."  She squinted up at Q.  "At least if you die saving someone's life, yours had a point to it."

     Q's frown deepened.  "You're a lot of big talk for such a little girl."

     "You're just mad that I'm smarter than you."

     "I have an IQ of 2005!"

     Kailee put her hands on her hips.  "Oh yeah?  Then how come you didn't know what my ball was for?"

     For the first time, Q actually seemed at a loss for words.  But when his mouth finally opened to answer, the doors to sickbay slid open, interrupting before he could.  A security officer stepped out.

     "There you are!"  He looked relieved, and grabbed Q by the arm.  "How did you manage to slip away from me?"

     "Oh, you're as dense as your bumpy headed superior," Q snorted.  He looked down at Kailee, then back up at his captor, straightening his posture a little.  "Take me to the captain.  I want to see the captain."

     The security officer sighed.  "Okay, but if you – "  He stopped, apparently noticing Kailee for the first time.  "Kailee, right – your mom's a nurse?  She's just about done with her patient in there.  I'm sure you could go inside."  He nodded towards sickbay.

     "Thanks."  She shot Q a stony glare, but then stopped in the doorway to sickbay, surprised when he did something very strange.

     He _smiled_ at her.

#

     "I'm very glad that you're all better," Kailee told Data.  Her mom was still working on a patient at one of the bio-beds in the back of sickbay, but Dr. Crusher said she didn't mind if Kailee hung around and watched while they finished reconnecting Data's language circuits.  She'd even eavesdropped when Q had come in and thanked Data for saving his life.

     "We all are," Geordi said, running his tricorder over the back of the android's head.  "It looks like you'll outlive us yet, Data."

     He swiveled his head to the side as if testing his joints.  "It is unusual," he said, "the tendency for humans to overlay the same patterns of life and death onto an artificial being such as myself.  Essentially, I _die_ every time that I am deactivated.  It is merely an issue of whether I am able to be activated again."

     "I'm sure you'll continue to bounce right back, Data," Dr. Crusher said, patting his shoulder. 

     Data looked down at Kailee.  "And thank you, Kailee.  I also am... glad.  To be all better."

     Dr. Crusher and Geordi began conversing in low voices, so Kailee took the opportunity to whisper to Data, "I think he was right, you know - Q.  When he said that you're a better human than him."

     Data actually almost looked surprised.  "Oh?  He _is_ fully human now, even if he was once – "

     "I think he's a little crazy," Kailee said seriously.  "And he's very scared.  I can tell.  My mom says that the boys in my class pull my hair because they like me.  And that they act all macho and arrogant when they're really just scared.  I think he's like them.  A ten year old trapped in a grown-up's body."

     "Actually," Data said, "he is either very, very old or very, very young, depending on how you look at it."

     Kailee nodded and put a hand on his arm.  "Just promise me you won't hurt yourself trying to save him again?  I don't think he's worth it."

     "Kailee," Data said, sounding very serious, "remember that it was Q's unwillingness to risk his life for mine that made him feel ashamed.  From what I know of the human virtue of self-sacrifice, it is rarely dependent on how _worthy_ someone is."

     Kailee opened her mouth to respond, maybe even to argue, but was interrupted by Data and Geordi's communicators beeping simultaneously.  She listened, but didn't quite understand what was happening. 

     "I will be right there," Data finished, and pulled himself off of the table.  "Come see me later, Kailee, and we will begin those oboe lessons."

     She nodded, and gave a little wave as he and Geordi hurried out of sickbay.  Dr. Crusher had just stepped back into the room, and Kailee looked at her quizzically.

     "It looks like Q might have gotten himself into a spot we can't pull him out of," she said, actually looking a little sad.  "Come on, Kailee," she added, holding out her hand.  "Your mom's agreed to finish looking after that patient for me, so I told her I'd take you back to your quarters."

     Kailee nodded and slipped her hand into Dr. Crusher's.  For some reason, she found herself hoping that Q wasn't too scared, wherever he was.

#

     "You!  Girl child!"

     Kailee yelped in surprise, jumping up from where she'd been sitting at the kitchen table with her homework.  Her mouth dropped open when she saw Q, wearing a Starfleet uniform and sitting on the arm of her couch.  "What are you doing here?" she asked, startled.

     "I just came to say goodbye."  He gave a low bow, his forehead nearly touching his knees.  "I am no longer human, so I have no cause to hang around with you people anymore."

     She narrowed her eyes skeptically.  "Last I heard, you were about to get yourself into some trouble."

     "Well, yes."  He waved a hand dismissively.  "It was a suicide attempt, really, but as it turned out, a selfless act as well!  Who would've thought?  Anyway, apparently I proved myself worthy of my powers.  So here I am, immortal and omnipotent once again."

     "Omni-what?"

     "Omnipo – oh, never mind.  No longer one of your piddling species, that's all that matters.  Now, I thought since I gave Data a little parting gift – "

     "What did you do to Mr. Data?" Kailee accused.

     Q laughed.  "Don't you worry your pretty little head.  It was entirely harmless.  The gift... of laughter."  He looked very pleased with himself.  "Now, what about you?  For some reason I feel inclined towards generosity and I think I should get it out of my system as quickly as possible."

     Kailee frowned.  "You want to give me a present?"

     "And she _can_ be taught!  So, what will it be?  A roomful of candy?  Kittens and puppies?  I could make you the prettiest ten year old on the whole ship.  Or maybe you'd like to be older already?"

     Kailee felt a strange sensation zap through her body.  She looked down, and realized that she was wearing a Starfleet uniform.  "Hey!" she squeaked.  "What did you do?"

     Q smiled and held up a mirror that had suddenly materialized in his hand.

     Kailee's mouth dropped open.  So did that of the woman in the mirror.  She thought briefly that she was... pretty, and then shook her head, looking away.  "Put me back," she said.

     Q shrugged and snapped his fingers.  Kailee was back to her normal self, but suddenly there was a squirming puppy in her arms.  "Q!" she laughed.  "No!"

     He sighed, snapped his fingers again, and the puppy disappeared.  "Okay, fine.  What is it you want?"

     Kailee slumped back into her chair.  "You could really give me anything I want?"

     "Yes, yes, if you're just quick about it."

     She bit her lip.  "Actually, I..."  Wow, she thought, her mom would be really proud of her for this one.  "There's another thing about humans I should tell you.  We sort of like to do things on our own.  Like, uh, growing up.  And getting puppies."

     Q scowled.  "Are you sure that Riker isn't your father?  You're a regular chip off the old blockhead.  Fine, fine, if you don't want anything..."

     "Actually – "  Kailee looked thoughtful.  "I could use another ball.  Since you lost mine."

     "A _ball_?"  Q lifted an eyebrow.  "I can offer you all the riches in the universe and you want something to toss about and bounce off walls?"

     "Yup."

     He rolled his eyes and held out his palm. 

     Kailee grinned and took the ball from him, holding it up to her eyes to examine it.  "Wow.  It's really... pretty.  What's that inside?"  On the surface it seemed like a normal rubber ball, but it looked like there was something inside, something blue and gaseous. 

     Q cleared his throat.  "Oh, it's just a... small civilization.  Just the Calamarain, nothing terribly exciting."

     "A small _what_?"  Kailee peered at the ball.  It really was beautiful.

     Q smiled and stood, then patted her on the head.  "Nothing for you to worry over, my dear.  Just have lots of fun bouncing it around."

     Kailee was skeptical, but it _was_ just a ball, after all.  "Well," she said, and stuck out her free hand.  "Thanks for the ball."

     "You're... welcome."  He suddenly looked uncomfortable, as if he'd been caught in the act of something incriminating.  Like being _nice_.  "I'm off to roam the galaxy as a god once more.  Perhaps we shall meet again.  For some reason I find myself rather fond of your captain."

     Kailee suspected that her mother would think it was impolite, but instead of wishing him farewell, she said, "Don't hurry back.  You seem to cause a lot of trouble."

     Q laughed.  "My work here is done."  And then he was gone.

     Kailee tossed the ball into the empty space that his presence had just occupied.  It bounced up and she caught it.  Maybe, she thought, she'd go ask Data if he wanted to play.


End file.
